P: New user interface lacks contrast and many usability cues, lots of other problems

This article "How Adobe is Re-imagining Photoshop for the Mobile Era" gives a clue about what Adobe is thinking.  I found a link to the article on the Twitter page of Mathew Richmond, Director of Experience Design at Adobe.

@Jeff Sass Were the customers who gave you feedback at Adobe Mix using the full version of Photoshop on workstations, or some "express version" of Photohop, like Photoshop Fix, running on iOS?  If the latter, their feedback on the UI is irrelevant. 

I can tell you for sure that the first year art student would have failed any competent design class.

Jeff, have you not realized that your current pre-release team is failing left and right? They've missed countless obvious bugs and issues with the CC15&16 releases. If they can't even get that right, then why are you trusting their input about the UI? 

Honestly, the new UI looks like it was designed by a first year art student. There's nothing refined or elegant about it. It's sloppy, inconsistent and very poorly designed. I mean, it's usable, but just barely. 

More importantly, the UI changes in CS6 were nowhere as poorly designed and implemented as these. No one had issues with that one. Go back to that and all will be fine. No changes or "improvements" necessary.

"3) We will not be adding a "classic UI” checkbox into the UI. Photoshop did not do that when we made the UI changes for CS6 either. We are very interested in making improvements and we appreciate the discussion on this thread for how we can improve it for a future version."

Well..this is just rude. 100 of your customers is saying they dont like it and you just said: who cares....

If you think this is bad, just try to change a gradient in a mask.  I at least haven't found it to be possible at all.

And tested at Adobe Max?  using at a conference in ONE room ambient with ONE type of monitor/projection setup and on and on is NOT testing across a customer base of various rooms, lighting, monitors, eyesight, etc.  Plus many conference goers would not walk up to "you" and say "this st..ks"; even I probably wouldn't.  :))

I might cringe, but in the dark you wouldn't see that 🙂

Plus, don't know about other presenters, but if I were putting on a presentation I would try to have a bright display or projector.

That is not how one adjusts their monitor when trying to print match.  For print matching the monitor is typically calibrated at a brightness of about 100 hmmm is it foot candles?  forget the unit, but it is DIM.

BUT BUT I am really glad that you and the other Adobe "guys" are listening here.  I thought that the topic was being ignored (friend just pointed me to this forum tonight).

Hi Jeff,

I have a suggestion that might save you a lot of work.

When you all are sitting around contemplating UI changes, do a mock up in PS.  It might take only a few hours? you could copy a screen shot or 10 of the last version and paint in the new color ideas, like very very black on somewhat less very very black on very black and post them.

You might get some feedback before you get more that a very few hours into it.  And while you would of course hear different opinions cuz people are diff, you might also get a feeling for how it looks across a wide spectrum of monitors (cheap, not cheap; calibrated, not calibrated; in ideal viewing condition rooms and not, etc.)  

You could even do a survey asking "what monitor do you use? can you turn off the lights? (I can't); is it calibrated? etc.

^ Sorry, Adobe MAX*